Centro San Antonio boosts safety for Fiesta 2025 with increased police presence due to past incidents.
SAN ANTONIO — Centro San Antonio, an organization that maintain and manages downtown areas, hosted a news conference to address downtown safety ahead of Fiesta.
Fiesta 2025 runs a totall of 11 days from April 24 to May 4 and several of the key events take place downtown, including the kickoff, Fiesta Fiesta on Thursday, April 24. A Night in Old San Antonio at La Villita and Fiest De Los Reyes in Market Square also take place downtown.
At last year’s Fiesta De Los Reyes, a shooting broke out between two men in the crowded Historic Market Square. Authorities at the time said officers fired their weapons at 18-year-old Mikey Valdez after seeing him fire at 20-year-old Albert Cisneros Jr. Both young men died while four other bystanders were injured.
That incident last year, combined with a deadly crash last year when a vehicle plowed into a crowd in New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl, prompted Centro San Antonio to gather local leaders to address safety concerns.
“Centro convened with the Fiesta Commission as SAPD and others…really a meeting to talk about how do we heighten safety and make sure that Fiesta is safe, especially in downtown,” Centro SA CEO Trish DeBerry Said. “Because the majority of the Fiesta events where we have massive amounts of people happen in the urban core.”
Chief McManus said in the news conference that they are particularly looking to prevent crashes like the one in New Orleans.
“There’s no where you’ll be able to look at any Fiesta event and not see a police officer. And not just ones I’m talking about. They’ll be all over and they’ll be watching. We’ve taken steps to prevent vehicular intrusion into Fiesta areas, as we did with the MLK March and as we did with the NCAA events,” Chief McManus said.
He also issued a stark warning about getting behind the wheel after you’ve been drinking.
“It doesn’t make any difference if you have one drink or ten drinks if an officer smells it on you getting out of the car. So don’t do it,” Chief McManus said. “It’s expensive and it can ruin your life. So don’t do it.”
Fire Chief Valerie Fausto spoke at the news conference, saying Fiesta-goers will something new this year in an effort to keep parade routes safer.
“We will also have resources actually like the ones behind me. So you’ll see EMS crews out on bikes. They’ll be in and around the parade route and in and around all of the events that will be going on downtown. So keep an eye out for them,” Chief Fausto said.
Click here to find out more about Fiesta traffic in the downtown area.